ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION

Any process by which fecundation of an ovum takes

place not as a result of the act of sexual intercourse,
but as the result of sperm being deliberately
introduced into the vagina in some other way.
1

Types of artificial insemination:

1. Homologous Insemination (AIH) – using

husband’s semen. Artificial
Insemination by Husband.
2. Heterologous Insemination (AID) -
Artificial Insemination by a Donor –
using donor’s semen.
3. Confused Artificial Insemination (CAI)
using a mixture of sperm from husband
and sperm obtained from donor.
4.“Improper” Artificial Insemination (IAI)
limited to certain techniques: dilation of
the uterine cervix, collection of the semen
found in the vaginal recess and its ulterior
re-introduction into the uterus, so that
sexual union can result in pregnancy:

2
 Reasons for seeking artificial insemination:

1. Infertility –
2. Genetic reasons
3. Couples unable or unwilling to adopt children
4. As a therapeutic intervention for husbands
3

Infertility - impossibility for couple to

conceive a child in the usual sexual way.

Male: asospermia - no sperm

* Oligospermia - low sperm count
* Impotence - diabetes
Female:
• no ovulation
• vaginal environment that is biologically
inhospitable to sperm (immunologic
incompatibility between husband’s semen
and wife’s cervical or vaginal secretions)
• anatomical defect in female:
- small cervix
- abnormal position of uterus

4
 - Genetic reasons
-
Couple do not want to transmit defective genes
to offsprings.:
* Tay Sach’s disease – carrier of recessive gene;
* Huntington’s Chorea - carrier of dominant gene

As a therapeutic intervention

for husbands who are about to undergo surgery,

drug treatment, or radiation treatment that may
cause sterility or damage sperm cells, then
semen samples may be frozen and ready for
use when needed.
5

ETHICAL EVALUATION

The major ethical objection to AI is - separates

love-making and procreative aspects of
human sexual activity.

Ethical Principles Involved in Artificial

Insemination:
1. Natural Law Ethics - morally illicit
2. Principle of Autonomy (-)
3. Principle of Human dignity (-)
6

ISSUES

Legal issues - ambiguous

1. paternity
2. legitimacy
3. inheritance

Social Issues:
1. sexual procreation - purely mechanical process;
2. promote the practice of eugenics & so denigrate
the worth of babies that fall short of some ideal;
3. just another step down the road toward the
society of Brave New world.

Health Issues:

Safety to the wife and to the potential child - danger

of transmitting:
1. Genetic diseases to the child; or
2. AIDS to the recipient woman
7
 Moral Issues:
Church view:

Rejected by the Church (Pius XII)

* violates the non-transferable and inalienable
rights to personalistic procreation;
* against the inseparability and generative
meaning of sexuality.
* does not justify the risk that husband will be
unable to accept the child whom he knows to be
another man’s (unconscious hostility).
* Woman does injustice to donor. Although he
knows he is being exploited, he is the true father
of the child and responsible for it – yet he is
induced (payment) to surrender his responsibility
in a dehumanizing way.
* May give rise to possibility of spread of unknown
genetic defects and the deleterious effects of
unrecognized incest.

However, “improper” AI may be allowed by the

church on a limited case to case basis.